Future Shock Blog

Minor League Update: Games of July 23

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It's rare for a 50th-round pick to be a prospect, but Turley is just that. Seen as unsignable in 2008, the Yankees took a flyer on him with their final pick and landed him with a $150,000 bonus.
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A huge left-hander at 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, Turley is actually more of a finesse pitcher who pounds the strike zone with three solid average pitches in his 88-92 mph fastball, curve and changeup. It's not the sexiest package, but it's led to a 2.69 ERA with 89 strikeouts over 80.1 innings so far in the Florida State League, and if he can do something like that next year at Double-A, he's suddenly a very real prospect.

Others Of Note:

Gioskar Amaya, 2B, Cubs (Short-season Boise): 3-for-4, RBI, R, 2 SB, CS. 19-yera-old Venezuela has hitting ability and speed; .326/.401/.543 but has to keep it up as right-side only defender.

Gregory Polanco, OF, Pirates (Low-A West Virginia): Tools-laded breakout plaer is 11-for-19 in last six games and up to .329/.387/.526 overall; 20-year-old has taken among the largest steps forward in the minors.

Chuck James had *historically* high fly ball rates. As there's really no "scouts vs. stats" divide anymore - beer and tacos, after all - James represents one of stat-heads' last 'victories'. Baseball America had James as a top-10 prospect when stat heads looked at his fly ball rate and realized there was no historical precedent for a pitcher of that type to experience major league success.

So I guess I'm saying he's not the best example of a guy with great minor league numbers failing to achieve in MLB. His lack of MLB success was predictable.

Here's one you missed: 3BMichael Almanzar, he of the $1.5M Red Sox bonus four years ago, went 3-3, 2B, HR, HBP for Salem, and has hit .467 / .568 / .967 over his last 8 games, with 24% of his season's walks, 5% of his strikeouts, and 4 of his 9 homers. He's six days older than Brandon Jacobs, a better defender, and now has better offensive numbers on the season. Worth watching.